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Salad

Corn Salad

A salad of corn, mango, onions, cabbage, celery, vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,169 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Corn Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Remove the kernels from the corn and chop the mangoes, onions, cabbage, and celery.

Cook the salad

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped vegetables with vinegar, sugar, mustard seed, turmeric powder, and salt.

  2. Boil the mixture for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,169 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Cabbage + mustardtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mangoes
Provide the main fruit body and sweet, tropical flavor that balances the vinegar.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that preserves the vegetables and gives the salad its sharp, tangy character.
Sugar
Balances the acidity of the vinegar and adds sweetness to the finished salad.
Corn
Adds sweetness and crisp, starchy texture to the salad.
Cabbage
Contributes crunch and bulk that holds its texture after simmering.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stirring prevents the sugar and vinegar mixture from scorching on the pot bottom, while simmering softens the vegetables and lets the flavors meld evenly.

Swap the mango

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, onion, cabbage, celery, vinegar, sugar, mustard):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Lemonfits about as well
  4. Mangothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, onion, cabbage, celery, vinegar, sugar, mustard. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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